To Walk in Carcosa
Dressing for the occasion Carosa's ancient, mismatched architecture sprawled around the investigators as they tried to make sense of where they had been transported too. Unrecognizably blackened stars dotted the coral, twilight sky, causing Grace to cower in fear at their alien view. The twin suns seemed to fall towards the horizon, bleeding gorgeous colors across the city while dark shapes swirled around their shadow. The most obvious way forward seemed to be through a gilded, white marble arch. Or it was, until they looked away, because when they turned back it was a gap in a long hedgerow. As the group made their way to it, Betty boldly stepped through the gap while others weren't looking, and found herself faced with a tall building with a darkened entrance at its base and a balcony above leading further into the interior. But behind her the gap has disappeared, leaving her on the other side of the hedge from the rest of the group. They could hear one another, but there didn't appear to be any way to find one another. Betty's only option seemed to be to head into the building, where its darkened interior twisted and turned until she found herself on the balcony above, despite having descended to get there. The rest of the investigators, confounded by this, held hands so as to maintain physical contact with one another and found that a doorway in a stone wall lead into a hedge-ringed garden. Betty was in full view on the balcony above them, but they were loathe to try to reach her by travelling into the building lest they lose track again. Ultimately Betty performed an amazing feat of acrobatics and safely lowered herself into the waiting arms of Eloise below. Together again, they entered the building once again, but this time it lead them to a masked figure pacing back and forth. He introduced himself as Noss, a willing and excitable guide to the city. He was concerned they weren't dressed for the festival, and encouraged them to pick a mask of their own to conceal their true selves. Grace picked the sun mask, bold and illuminating; Betty the plague doctor, eager to help those in need; Eloise picked the cat, agile and graceful, and Leonid picked the Yellow Sign, a fearful but insightful choice. Now looking fit for the ongoing festivities, Noss guided the group out into Yhtill's streets beyond, disappearing suddenly around a corner which turned out to be a blank stone wall when the others attempted to follow. A fall and threats Presented with a long street of homes with no first-floor doors or windows, the group was confronted by a man leaning from an upstairs balcony. Although distracted by an ongoing party behind him, he encouraged them to look beyond, where a figure in a pallid mask, very reminiscent of the play they had seen at the very start of their adventures. They made to follow the figure, who lead them down a set of winding stairs and out into an open square, a canal running through its center and a thin stone bridge the only way across. The figure disappeared into a building beyond. Knowing this bridge from his prophetic dream, Leonid was hesitant to cross. The others made their way crawling or leaping and despite the dizzying drop into blackness below, found the crossing easy enough. Leonid appeared to do so as well, but knowing his fate, found himself compelled to stand in its center. Was he pushed? It needn't matter. He fell all the same, plummeting into the blackness far below. The others watched him fall with great sadness, but with no way to help him beyond submitting themselves to the same fate, they continued onwards, heading through the same door that they had seen the figure with the mask enter earlier. Beyond was a long corridor lined with portraits and candles that seemed to grow shorter as they progressed, eventually forcing them to crawl through their hands and knees. A door at its end was barely passable, but lead through on to a stage in an expansive auditorium. It has stage boards for moving scenery and discard costumes and masks litter the wings. Unsure of whether to progress through such a place, Eloise doubled back into the tunnel, only to find herself in a storage cupboard. Behind her a ladder lead up to a trapdoor in the ceiling, so they took it, emerging from a trapdoor on the stage in the auditorium. Emerging on to it, Betty spotted a handgun protruding from behind a nearby pillar and shouted a warning as shots rang out in their direction. A short, stumpy-legged man took off running during the commotion, gun in hand. The group managed to call him back and he stopped running when he learned of their humanity. Quentin Spence was a fat, perspiring man who appeared nervous and erratic. Claiming that he was concerned they were the flying creatures above, he apologized for shooting at them and suggested that he was looking for Alexander Roby. Quentin also told the group of Edwards' plans. How his performances at the palace were growing more extreme, drawing in the bloated creatures that pulled themselves through the sky on pallid, wasted tentacles. He left after several summonings and now hoped to leave Carcosa entirely by speaking with Alexander.﻿ Deciding to head off as a group together, they began to make their way to the stepped seating of the auditorium which lead upwards beyond their line of sight, only to discover a body lying prone nearby. The masked reveller had been shot. After some questioning, Quentin admitted to the deed, claiming another mistaken identity. Betty didn't buy his explanation and drew her own gun on him, successfully threatening him to give up his own. Urging him onwards, they demanded that Quentin lead them up the steps to wherever they lead. Gardens and sculptures After finally cresting the stepped seating, the investigators gazed out across the horizon-less city, its shifting architecture stretching ever onwards, only stopping at the shores of a black, motionless lake. But dwarfing it all was the gargantuan, glowing palace beyond, sitting on the far bank. While they stared in awe at the spectacle, Quentin made a break for it. Betty took a shot at him as he ran, but it flew wide, burying itself in a nearby wall. Resolving to make their way to the palace to try and halt Edwards, the group made their way down narrow, twisting streets, curling in on themselves like a conch shell. Emerging through a narrow doorway, they found thesmelves confronted by a group of party goers, all dressed in masks. One familiar. It was Noss. Now in a slightly more tipsy state, he consoled them on their lost companion and suggested they might find Alexander at the Sculpture Museum. But first, they must visit the Lilly Garden to lift their mood. He'd take them there. It was near his fish shop. Setting off at brisk pace, the investigators had to race to keep up with him, nearly losing sight of him several times as he took several narrow alleyways and streets with no clear direction. They turned back on themselves several times in their traversal of the city. But somehow they still emerged in the Lilly Garden as intended. It was indeed beautiful and relaxing, with trickling, flowing water, gorgeous floral scents, and at its center, a large, blossoming tree. A bench rested against its trunk, enveloping it in a warm embrace. And sat upon it, was Dr. Leonid Slutski. Reunited, the group learned how it had been Alexander who had pulled him from the canal after his fall and who had brought him here. He was concerned about the actions of Edwards and resolved to research his aims more in his study at the sculpture museum. After managing to retain the guiding services or Noss for a moment or two longer, the group followed him to the nearby Sculpture Garden, where he departed to attend to his establishment. The museum was a small, white building, fronted by an expansive, waist-high maze garden filled with statues at confluence points. There were statues of animals, men, women, and creatures they didn't recognize. One dog-headed monstrosity cradled the form of a humane baby in its long claws. Near the doorway were four sculptures they did remember though. They were black stone depictions of the winged creatures they'd seen in Claire Melford... or were they? As Leonid leaned in close, the eyeball of one flickered towards him. Another shivered on its perch. They were alive. Would they attack if the group entered? Risking it, they pushed open the door to the museum and nothing happened. They were safely inside. Inside they found a selection of bizarre artifacts and exhibits. Paintins and depictions of the great Unspeakable One, an unknowning mass of flesh, eyes, and yellow; dioramas of London as they know it now in 1929, and again in 2030 with the death camps and broken skyscrapers; rows of hundreds upon hundreds of whistles like their own, all exquisitely carved from the same material; star maps of impossible constellations, and a figure of wet clay, newly cast. The weeping form's face was that of Eloise. In a study down a nearby corridor, the group found Alexander asleep at his desk. He'd been doing some reading. Although he still wasn't convinced by the investigators that Edwards plans were too dangerous, he decided to speak to him in person and agreed to guide the group across the lake to the palace. Crossing the lake The journey to the lake's shore ran far downhill and takes some time to traverse through Carcosa's winding residential streets. The water is as still as stone, and blacker than a starless night sky. Several boats are tied up to a small dock, their polished hulls not bobbing, nor lapped by the water. Some have oars, others have sails. With little sailing experience between them, the group fits themselves into a rowing boat and pushed off from the shore towards the looming, gleaming palace beyond. After some time had passed, and the shore of the city had faded behind them to a mere blip on the horizon, a disturbance appeared in the water up ahead. As it loomed closer, creating a wake behind it as it came, it became clear that this was one of the pale, bulbous apparitions that they'd met in the forest earlier. It dove beneath the boat, but rocked it all the same, knocking Alexander, Leonid, and Grace overboard! Although Alexander and Grace managed to grab on the boat, Leonid failed to find a handhold and began to drown, his fingertips barely breaking the surface of the infinite blackness before slipping beneath once again. Betty, sensing the danger of losing their friend once more to Cacosa's dark waters, dove in and managed to lift him free of the surface, but then began to struggle herself. It was only with concerted efforts from everyone that they made it back into the boat, dripping but alive. The bloated, tentacled creature left the water behind them, hauling itself into the air on grasping, suckered tentacles, before diving back beneath the surface, not making a sound, nor a splash and disappearing far below. They made it to the far shore unmolested after that, although as they approached the looming palace and its gilded battlements, they saw a dark blow in the sky. A great cloud of the winged creatures from their nightmares that fell from the shadow of the twin suns towards the palace, coming to rest on its roofs and alcoves. "I see what's happening. Edwards is using Carcosa to speak to Hastur. He thinks it's just like the play... the Stranger is in the Palace and so he can call the King in Yellow. He's wrong – he'll bring Hastur himself. Hastur won't bargain with him. He won't even notice him... he'll doom Carcosa. Doom the Earth. All of us." The palace The palace is enormously expansive, with multiple levels rising above one another. Huge arches, beams, walkways, and balconies, overseen by looming, gilded roofs and ornamental spires. There are battlements in places, and decorative pathways elsewhere in a mishmash of styles. There are even elements of Mullardoch House fused into the Palace's walls. The group disembarked onto the docks and made their way inside the palace proper, letting Alexander lead them to where presumably Edwards was performing his summoning ritual. The marble floors tapped under their feet as they went, passing ancient portraits, elaborate dining and living areas. There was evidence of frivolity everywhere, with discarded food and drink on every surface. Clothes could be seen, dropped in piles and individually, with the sound of laughter and an occasional sight of naked bodies running to and fro in the distance. As they pass one room though, they recognize someone. Coombs stood over a still warm body. He looks at the group, not recognizing them with their masks on, but smiles cooly. They leave before he can follow, but stay close lest he should attempt it. As they rounded another corner, a woman comes rushing into Leonid's arms. He manages to catch her before she falls, but she's panicked and inconsolable. Leonid let her go and she runs off into the palace. He didn't tell the others, but he'd had a dream of a beautiful but dangerous woman, and fearing this, bemasked beauty could be her, he couldn't risk her endangering the group. A short while later, after traversing walkways and passages inumerable, they step into a gorgeos ballroom, its ceiling bedecked with uncountable chandeliers, all blazing with light. Alexander leads them through a door at the base of a wall of windows, and out onto a balcony. It granted them a commanding view of the palace stretching beyond and below them to the lake and the city beyond, which seemed miniscule now they were so far from it. More immediately at hand, thousands upon thousands of the great, black, winged creatures, nestled on the roof tops, crennelations and chimneys of the grand palace, blotting out its magnifience under their weight and number. They seemed restless, their attention rapt. Looking down, the investigators could see a terrace beneath them, where some 100 metres away, Edwards and his troupe of cultists conducted a strange performance. The ritual Grace immediately recognizes that they are performing The King in Yellow, the very same play they all saw together many weeks before. It appears more like a rehearsel than a performance though, with no audience save the watching winged creatures. Many of the actors hold scripts and no one is in costume. There are props though, and as they watch one of the cultists brings a sword down on Edwards' shoulder. But it's no dummy sword. The blade cuts deep, blood gushing from the wound. Edwards slumped to his knees, but continued to speak his lines, and as the sword is pulled free, the investigators watch as his wounds knit shut. They debated for some time about how to proceed, concerned that should they attempt to attack Edwards, not only may they find it impossible to kill him, but that the watching creatures may defend him. Alexander offers to speak to him, and while the others remain hidden he approaches and interrupts the rituation. Edwards mostly ignores him, but eventually grew exasperated and a shout match ensues. When Alexander returned to them he was despondent. Edwards would not listen to reason and would go on with his plans to summon Hastur. Alexander sees only one option left to him and offers to shoot Edwards himself. Betty hands him the gun, only for him to place it against his temple and his finger on the trigger. Stopping him just in time, the group resolves to speak the prayer they learned from the Turner Codex and ring the bell. They gather around it together, chanting as one and then the ring the chime. Instantly the performers stop, the ground shaking beneath them. Edwards glowers up at the balcony. He is all too aware of what they've done. As are the onlooking creatures, which scream in frustration and together take to the sky, beating their horrible wings as they rise back towards the shadow of the suns. But all is not over. The group once again gather together, chanting the second of the Turner Code's euologies and once again chime the bell. This time the energy they had removed from the performance rebounds back onto it. Air whoshes past them as the power of the enchantment surges back upon the performers, crashing into Edwards, who begins to scream in anguish, blood boiling from his eyes, ears, and nose. He collapses to the floor, a slowly spreading pool of his liquifying form all that remains of him. The rest of the cultists scattered, leaving the group alone on the balcony. Saddened, but accepting of the outcome, Alexander offered to help them leave the city and guided them back into the ballroom. But just as they began to cross it, one of the winged creatures landed onto the balcony and appeared to test the glass before it, unsure of its strength, before crashing straight through it with a scream. They had to run. Escaping Carcosa The group took off towards the far door of the ball room, but Alexander wasn't with them. "Think on the words," he told them. "The ones I spoke to you when first we met. There you will find your exit." He could not be persuaded to follow, and as the investigators hurriedly closed the door of the ballroom behind them, the great winged creature snatched Alexander by the neck and tore his spine from his body. The group raced through the palace, running down corridors and through elaborate rooms, the decadence seeming ever more obscene as they went. As they went, they thought on what Alexander had said. The way to escape Carcosa, he'd chanted in the St. Agnes asylum many weeks ago, was to head to where prophet and queen met. The garden! They rushed their way there, winged creatures crashing through the palace just behind them, some chasing down cultists and tearing them apart, others dogging the investigator's every turn. As if that wasn't enough, Coombs suddenly joined the chase, snickering his long, blood soaked blade against surfaces as he pursued them. Indeed as they neared the garden, the group were forced to step over the body of the young woman Leonid had caught earlier, her wrists and neck slashed red like the rubies she wore. Finally making it to the garden, the investigators ﻿were almost home free, but Coombs had gotten there ahead of them. Tossing his knife from hand to hand, he rushed forward, slashing and hacking. Betty fired a shot but it went wide, while Leonid tried to grapple the much taller man. He brushed him aside, delivering a blow that almost proved fatal once again, but the man's blade couldn't find its mark. When all hope seemed lost, Grace pulled the ancient whistle from her coat and held it aloft. If Coombs didn't leave, she'd blow it. As if on cue, one of the huge winged monsters crashed into the rooftops above them, its hoarse cry echoing through the walled garden. They all knew what blowing it would do. Cursing, Coombs threatened vengeance in the future and ran off into the palace, giving the investigators the precious moments they needed to run into the maze at the center of the garden. As the creature from above crashed down to earth and began to tear through the hedgerows at their heels, they managed, with the right amount of luck and guile, to find their way to the centre, where a Yellow Sign was etched upon the floor in white stones. With little time to waste, they stepped on to it. And in a flash, they were back on the shore of Lake Mullardoch. Carcosa, the palace, the monsters, Coombs, were all gone. Minds reeling from everything they'd seen and done, they collapsed in a heap, darkness claiming them.